Quilting is a traditional practice that has transitioned from being a necessity to being a form of art. To honour our quilters past and present and to recognize Canada's 150th the FHF committee is organizing a Community Quilt Display. Our goal to display a minimum of 150 quilts. We know that there are a number of quilters in our community today and we are looking forward to hearing from you. The good news however is that you do not have to be a quilter to enter the display. Perhaps you have a quilt that was made by a relative, a friend or neighbour. Maybe it was passed down or gifted to you? Do you who made it or anything about the materials used? Would you like to display it? What story does it have to tell? We'd like to hear from you.

Beth Abbott, a well known Fibre Artist, Quilter and resident of Godfrey has been providing guidance to the festival committee for the display, which we are very grateful for. It's also quite likely she and other knowledgeable quilters will be on hand at the event so you may have a chance to speak with one of them and learn a little more about the art of quilting past and present. The FHF will be taking place Feb 17-20 at a number of locations throughout Central Frontenac. The quilts will be on display at the United Church, the Anglican Church and the Masonic Hall in Sharbot Lake on Saturday February 18, and at the United Church in Arden as well.

We are anticipating a good response from the public and therefore we have decided to limit entrants to a maximum of 3 quilts per household at this time. For more information please call Janet Gutowski at 613-374-1355. There will be more information forthcoming on our website www.frontenacheritagefestival.ca and our Facebook page.

Meghan Robinson, a local artist and dancer, along with storyteller and musician Laurie Clark, gave kids at Land O'Lakes Public School (LOLPS) a fun and musical introduction to hula hooping on Monday morning.

Robinson, who lives in Clarendon, taught students the basics of “hooping” while Clark, who lives in McDonald's Corners, played a wide range of instruments, creating different soundscapes for Robinson to interpret with her hula hoop.

Robinson started the workshop by dancing while Clark told an Algonquin tale, with musical interludes, that got the kids excited to try the hooping themselves.

The students really took to the lessons and were dancing around the gym in no time, spinning the hoops around their arms, hips, and necks and laughing out loud, all the while trying to impress the teachers by their newfound dance skills.

started hooping 4.5 years ago and has since started offering courses in the area. A couple of teachers from LOLPs took Robinson's course and thought it would be a great idea to bring her to the school to workshop the dancing with the students.

This hooping workshop was part of Blue Skies In The Community, an outreach program that has been fostering the arts, artists, and musicians in the area since 1988.

Blue Skies In The Community has been responsible for Sheesham and Lotus, Craig Cardiff, and ukelele master James Hill visiting LOLPS in the past and performing for the kids.

Thanks to guest photographer Tyson Ross for taking some of the photos for the article.

The Tay Valley Community Choir is pleased to once again stage a Christmas concert, this year titled An 1816 Christmas to help celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the founding of Tay Valley Township. The Choir has selected a series of songs for everyone to enjoy, ranging from some that the settlers of long ago might have sung to help them through “the bleak mid-winter,” to modern-day arrangements that spread joy around the hearth. 

“For this concert our choir will be even larger than last year’s,” says conductor Rebecca Worden. “Get ready for a big holiday sound that will reach out and embrace you! Also come ready to sing along with favourites for this time of year. We're really looking forward to a beautiful evening in Maberly Community Hall!”

Accompanying the choir once again will be skilled pianist, Mary Lou Carroll. Several choir members will have solo singing opportunities and joining as a special guest will be flautist Jane Cunningham. As well, word has it that Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus—and possibly also The Grinch—will make an appearance! Oh, and The Andrew Sisters and Elvis will be on hand, too!

An 1816 Christmas will take place Saturday December 10th at 7:00pm at Maberly Community Hall.  Admission is $10 per person and refreshments will be on hand following the concert. Food or other donations to The Table can be made that evening and will be most welcome. Special thanks to Tay Valley Township and Blue Skies in the Community for supporting this event!

We have a tremendous project planned for Canada’s 150th Anniversary of Confederation next year. As part of our Sesquicentennial Project our colour themes for the Community Planter boxes will be red and white. We hope all local gardeners who plant flowers next spring, to enjoy for the summer season, will do the same. Just imagine our Community at large in a bounty of red and white flower beds and containers. It is a significant and visual way to show everyone driving into our Townships of North Frontenac and Addington Highlands that we know how to celebrate 2017, such a special year for Canada. Most important, we are asking all you readers to set aside June 24th 2017 so you can attend the annual opening of the Pioneer Museum in Cloyne, beside the Barrie Township Hall, for a very special unveiling of an Art Installation completed by our Land O’Lakes Garden Club members, in recognition of Canada’s 150th. We appreciate the help and support of the Historical Society Board in this undertaking, who have so kindly agreed to display our art work on the Museum. This project has involved many volunteers and a tremendous amount of work and a great deal of learning for all those who have participated. Under the guidance of our Co chair Lynn Oborne we feel we have created an Art Installation that the Community will be proud of. We are all excited for you to come out and see our handiwork. Canada’s 150th Anniversary is a once in a lifetime opportunity to connect with one another, to celebrate our accomplishments as a nation, our diversity and common interests and engage as a community in a conversation of our vision for the future. We look forward to you attending along with your friends and neighbours to view this Art Installation that we hope will be enjoyed by the entire Community. We have also commissioned a local artisan, Ken Chatson, to create a tribute piece on our behalf for the Community. Please mark June 24, 2017 as a special day on your calendar and come out to meet your friends and neighbours at the event.

(L to R) Emma Douglas , Jennifer Argyle, and Kora Kamps Sissons play the lead character Tesah Carter at three stages of her life in the original musical Turtle Crossings by Craig Godfrey, which will be   by North Frontenac Little Theatre from Thursday to Sunday at Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake. The three of them were photographed while waiting back stage at the dress rehearsal on Tuesday night as a 4th Tesah, Elly Larocque, was on stage. For details about performance times and where to purchase tickets, visit www.NFLT.ca

(The article below is a write up from last year's 101 Nativities - The 2017 celebration, which will feature over 300 Nativities, is set for November 24th (evening)   November 25 and November 26 (daytime) EAch child can make thier own nativity in the craft room. Free entry and free refreshments - including home baking.)

When Jean Freeman started up 101 Nativities at the Cole Lake Free Methodist Church in 2010 she wanted to gather up as many nativity scenes as she could, from her own collection and those of friends, neighbours, and other parishioners from her church and other churches around the region.

Putting them all together into a display for public viewing in mid-November was her way of kicking off the Christmas season by focusing in on the most intimate aspect of the tradition, the birth of Jesus Christ.

“Before all of the commercial sales and everything else gets underway we thought this display of 101 Nativities, which was just a number we hoped to get to at the time, would set a bit of a mood for the season.”

Pretty quickly, it worked.

“Some children come here on opening night all dressed up. It's an event they look forward to all year,” she said on Saturday afternoon (November 19) as the show was ending its second day this year.

Freeman is joined by Kristine Caird along with a number of other volunteers in organising the show every year. This year there were 230 Nativity scenes laid out on tables and on a newly constructed display featuring 10 foot long recently milled rustic shelving that was made by a relative to help set off the scenes.

“We spend a lot of time in the couple of days before the show moving the different Nativities around so they look just right, and everyone works at it. Each morning I find it has changed because someone has had an idea and has moved things around, which is all part of making it just so,” said Caird.

The organisers never know if a crowd will come out, and this year the weather was so nice on the Saturday that they were worried the crowds would be thinner than normal, followed by a stormy Sunday.

“We are a tradition for people now,” said Caird, “and people seem to make it out at some point in the weekend to see their favourites, to see what is new this year, and even for the treats and coffee.”

The displays have a local and an international theme, with some displays coming from far afield (Africa, Europe, Israel, Haiti, South America) while others were purchased locally or hand-made. They are made of many different materials as well; ceramic, glass, wood, even coconut shells.

“One of the reasons we hold it so early is so people can have their Nativities back for their own displays. We get nervous about making sure nothing gets lost or damaged, especially as we grow every year, but so far we have a good record,” said Caird.

“It is a lot quicker to take down than it is too put up,” she added.

So far, the name 101 Nativities has held up, even through there were over 230 this year, but as they get closer to 300, pressure may mount to re-name the event. By 2025 we could be reporting on the Cole Lake 500.

November 15, 2016 – “An auto-parts heiress, married to a Russian yogi/ naturopathic doctor, is turning Kingston Penitentiary into a tourist attraction. Is this an investment opportunity to die for?” So goes the story line for the upcoming Murder Mystery Dinner happening on Saturday evening, December 3, at the Grace Centre, 4295 Stage Coach Road, in Sydenham.

Local charity Southern Frontenac Community Services is teaming up with Mr. Spot Mysteries to offer a fun-filled evening in Sydenham, where armchair sleuths can test their crime-solving skills in this hilarious production, while enjoying a lovely meal and the company of others.

Tickets for the Murder Mystery Dinner are $50 each, which includes not only the entertainment, but a sit-down, three course meal, with soup or salad, main course, one drink (beer/ wine/ soft drink), dessert, coffee/ tea, and dessert. A licensed cash bar will also be available.

“For less than the price of a dinner and a movie in Kingston, residents of South Frontenac – and beyond – can enjoy a fun evening out in the beautiful setting of the historic Grace Centre,” says Andy Mills, organizing the event on behalf of SFCSC. “Our meal will be prepared by our own cook, Josey Cadieux, and her team of volunteers,” he adds.

The Murder Mystery Dinner is intended to be a community event, and Mills states that SFCSC is involved for a few reasons: “We have this beautiful space, and we want to share it with our community quite simply by hosting events such as this. We also hope that we will meet some new guests who are not familiar with our charity, and will want to get to know us in the future.”

Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased online through the organization’s website: www.sfcsc.ca, as well as in person (cash or cheque) at their office at 4419 George Street in Sydenham.

For more information, visit: www.sfcsc.ca or contact Andy Mills at 613-376-6477, ext. 205.

At the Festival of Trees that’s held each year in early December, there is a lot of money collected, so where does it go? Who get’s it. What do they do with it? Who are they? And well you may ask.

The “they" are volunteers and the "Festival" is the event held each year to earn money to give back again to the community. What’s this? Yes the money goes back to the various villages in the area to buy flowers to make the villages beautiful each year, and the name of the group of volunteers who arrange all this is "Villages Beautifull". The group keeps only enough money over from year to year to fund the next Festival. All of the rest of the money is given out to the volunteers of the villages each year to buy flowers and containers and sometimes trees. The Festival is coming soon.

Kingston Frontenac Public Library Board and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 2202 are jointly announcing a tentative agreement on the union's 2016 employment contract.

Minutes of settlement were signed by officials of both the Library and CUPE on Thursday afternoon.  No details of the deal are being released pending ratification by the Board and by CUPE members.

"This tentative agreement was reached after positive and productive discussions between the Library and CUPE," said Shelagh Quigley, Director of Human Resources and the Library Board’s lead on union negotiations. "We feel it reflects the needs of our staff and the Library as a whole."

"We feel it was a good negotiation and hopefully our members are pleased," said Lori O’Connor, President of CUPE Local 2202. "We will be recommending acceptance at our ratification meeting.”

Valdy indeed filled Grace Hall last Saturday night, with both his music and an enthusiastic audience. Beginning with his classic, ‘Play me a Rock & Roll Song’, he went on to show us just how satisfying an evening of real folk singing can be.

An accomplished musician, Valdy’s guitar playing was rich and complex, with wonderful rhythms. His songs were full of warmth, humour and great stories. He related to his listeners with a comfortable familiarity.

Some came with armloads of well-loved Valdy records for him to sign, which he did as if he had all the time in the world, although some of us knew he had a three-hour drive still ahead of him that night, and a short sleep before an afternoon gig in Halliburton.